What the newspapers say: September 4, 2007

de HotNews.ro

Marţi, 4 septembrie 2007, 0:00

Newspapers on Tuesday read about the European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu which hosts the most important religious representatives in Europe as well as top European political figures. Elsewhere in the papers, an opposition-supported motion against the government, set for the autumn Parliamentary session, stirs up controversies within the Social Democrats, the party that initiated it.

And one paper reads about the Bucharest City Hall "social projects" in expensive residential areas.

Cotidianul reads that 2.500 delegates arrived in Sibiu, the Capital of European Culture this year, to attend the five-day European Ecumenical Assembly bringing together all European religious cults grouped in the European Churches Conference (for the Orthodox and Protestant Churches) and the Catholic Churches subordinated to the Vatican.

The event rests under an environmental tag: each delegate is asked do donate 15 euro to plant a tree to combat carbon emissions caused by their flights here. Even more, the first festive dinner, the daily coffee breaks and the farewell package will be made from environmental safe products while the coffee will be provided by Gepa - The Fair Trade Company.

The coffee company is known for respecting market prices and for offering decent labor conditions.

All participants will receive recycled paper for the five days, in an attempt to draw the attention of the population to environmental issues.

Among the most important delegates to the Sibiu convention: the Vatican representative, Cardinal Walter Kasper, Russian Orthodox Church representative, IPS Kirill, bishop of Smolensk and Kaliningrad; President of the Foreign Affairs department of the Russian Patriarchy,Gregorios III, and others.

The program, financed by the Romanian government with 1.68 million Romanian RON, also hosts high European officials including EC President Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the Parliamentary Reunion of the Council of Europe, Rene van der Linden and Secretary General of the European Council, Terry Davis.

Evenimentul Zilei reads about the motion submitted by the main Opposition Party, the Social Democrats (PSD) against the current Liberal government.

The newspaper argues that the motion provoked heated debates within the party: namely among the former leader of the party, Ion Iliescu and his supporters and the current party leader, Mircea Geoana.

Iliescu proposed that the government should be monitored and then decide whether or not a motion should be pushed forward or not.

Mircea Geoana said that he finds talks refreshing but once a decision is taken, all party member need to respect it, otherwise they would be sanctioned.

For the next week, Geoana already scheduled meetings with all parliamentary parties to negotiate the voting outcome for the motion.

PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu met with his own party vice-presidents on Monday to talk about the government’s chances to avoid the motion and the strategies for the European Parliamentary elections.

Gandul reads about the Bucharest City Hall social homes offered in expensive, residential areas. Bucharest Mayor, Adriean Videanu says he wished to impose a new standard for social programs and does not intend to build poor residential areas.

On the contrary, he considers that social programs only decrease the living standard of the capital city. Thus, the City Hall spends about 19 million euro for 186 households.

Moreover, Gandul comments that the apartments the City Hall contracted are not in accordance with the law regulating the size of the apartments. The residencies exceed the legal square meters allowed by almost a half.

Videanu argues that he bought apartments, not pools and that if it happens that the residencies have such facilities, it is a plus.